Refrigerator with ice maker having a torsional release mechanism

ABSTRACT

A refrigerator has an ice maker. The ice maker has: a longitudinal axis; and a rotatable, stretchable ice cube tray with an upper face defining a plane offset from the longitudinal axis with openings for ice cubes, a fixed lateral end, and a rotatable lateral end, the upper face being parallel to the longitudinal axis, the offset being at least a depth of an ice cube. Ice cubes are released when a torsional force exerted on the rotatable lateral end twists the stretchable tray.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention is related to a domestic refrigerator with an ice maker having a torsional release mechanism.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Conventional refrigeration appliances, such as domestic refrigerators, typically have both a fresh food compartment and a freezer compartment or section. The fresh food compartment is where food items such as fruits, vegetables, and beverages are stored. The freezer compartment is where food items that are to be kept in a frozen condition are stored. The refrigerators are provided with refrigeration systems that maintains the fresh food compartment at temperatures above 0° C., such as between 0.25° C. and 4.5° C. and the freezer compartments at temperatures below 0° C., such as between 0° C. and −20° C.

The arrangements of the fresh food and freezer compartments with respect to one another in such refrigerators vary. For example, in some cases, the freezer compartment is located above the fresh food compartment and in other cases the freezer compartment is located below the fresh food compartment. Additionally, many modern refrigerators have their freezer compartments and fresh food compartments arranged in a side-by-side relationship. Whatever arrangement of the freezer compartment and the fresh food compartment is employed, typically, separate access doors are provided for the compartments so that either compartment can be accessed without exposing the other compartment to the ambient air.

Ice makers typically have ice cubes with a pyramidal or tapered shape to facilitate cube removal (ejection/dumping) from the tray. While this has been a workable solution, there is a need to offer ice cubes with shapes other than the pyramidal or tapered shape, yet can still be easily removed (ejected/dumped) from tray. The invention disclosed below provides a solution to that problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A refrigerator has an ice maker. The ice maker has: a longitudinal axis; and a rotatable, stretchable ice cube tray with an upper face defining a plane offset from the longitudinal axis with openings for ice cubes, a fixed lateral end, and a rotatable lateral end, the upper face being parallel to the longitudinal axis, the offset being at least a depth of an ice cube. Ice cubes are released when a torsional force exerted on the rotatable lateral end twists the stretchable tray.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For the purpose of illustrating the invention, there is shown in the drawings a form that is presently preferred; it being understood, however, that this invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities and scale shown.

FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a prior art household French door bottom mount refrigeration appliance showing doors of the fresh food compartment and drawer of a freezer compartment in a closed position;

FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of the prior art refrigeration appliance of FIG. 1 showing the doors of the fresh food compartment in opened positions and the drawer of the freezer compartment removed;

FIG. 3 is an isometric view of an embodiment of the inventive ice maker (without tray twist).

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of the torsional twist of the tray.

FIG. 6 is an elevational view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 7 is an illustration showing tray twist.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of a refrigerator or a component thereof now will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Whenever possible, the same reference numerals are used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

Referring now to the drawings, FIGS. 1 and 2 show a refrigeration appliance in the form of a domestic refrigerator, indicated generally at 10. Although the detailed description that follows concerns a domestic refrigerator 10, the invention can be embodied by refrigeration appliances other than a domestic refrigerator 10. An embodiment is described in detail below, and shown in the figures as a bottom-mount configuration of a refrigerator 10, including a fresh food compartment 14 disposed vertically above a freezer compartment 12. However, the refrigerator 10 can have any desired configuration including at least a fresh food compartment 14 and/or a freezer compartment 12, such as a top mount refrigerator (freezer disposed above the fresh food compartment), a side-by-side refrigerator (fresh food compartment is laterally next to the freezer compartment), a standalone refrigerator or freezer, etc.

One or more doors 16 shown in FIG. 1 are pivotably coupled to a cabinet 19 of the refrigerator 10 to restrict and grant access to the fresh food compartment 14. The door 16 can include a single door that spans the entire lateral distance across the entrance to the fresh food compartment 14, or can include a pair of French-type doors 16 as shown in FIG. 1 that collectively span the entire lateral distance of the entrance to the fresh food compartment 14 to enclose the fresh food compartment 14.

For the latter configuration, a center flip mullion 21 (FIG. 2) is pivotally coupled to at least one of the doors 16 to establish a surface against which a seal provided to the other one of the doors 16 can seal the entrance to the fresh food compartment 14 at a location between opposing side surfaces 17 (FIG. 2) of the doors 16. The mullion 21 can be pivotably coupled to the door 16 to pivot between a first orientation that is substantially parallel to a planar surface of the door 16 when the door 16 is closed, and a different orientation when the door 16 is opened. The externally-exposed surface of the center mullion 21 is substantially parallel to the door 16 when the center mullion 21 is in the first orientation and forms an angle other than parallel relative to the door 16 when the center mullion 21 is in the second orientation. The seal and the externally-exposed surface of the mullion 21 cooperate approximately midway between the lateral sides of the fresh food compartment 14.

A dispenser 18 (FIG. 1) for dispensing at least ice pieces, and optionally water, can be provided on an exterior of one of the doors 16 that restricts access to the fresh food compartment 14. The dispenser 18 includes an actuator (e.g., lever, switch, proximity sensor, etc.) to cause frozen ice pieces to be dispensed from an ice bin 23 (FIG. 2) of an ice maker 25 disposed within the fresh food compartment 14. Ice pieces from the ice bin 23 can exit the ice bin 23 through an aperture 26 and be delivered to the dispenser 18 via an ice chute 22 (FIG. 2), which extends at least partially through the door 16 between the dispenser 18 and the ice bin 23.

The freezer compartment 12 is arranged vertically beneath the fresh food compartment 14. A drawer assembly (not shown) including one or more freezer baskets (not shown) can be withdrawn from the freezer compartment 12 to grant a user access to food items stored in the freezer compartment 12. The drawer assembly can be coupled to a freezer door 11 that includes a handle 15. When a user grasps the handle 15 and pulls the freezer door 11 open, at least one or more of the freezer baskets is caused to be at least partially withdrawn from the freezer compartment 12.

In alternative embodiments, the ice maker is located within the freezer compartment. In this configuration, although still disposed within the freezer compartment, at least the ice maker (and possible an ice bin) is mounted to an interior surface of the freezer door. It is contemplated that the ice mold and ice bin can be separate elements, in which one remains within the freezer compartment and the other is on the freezer door.

The freezer compartment 12 is used to freeze and/or maintain articles of food stored in the freezer compartment 12 in a frozen condition. For this purpose, the freezer compartment 12 is in thermal communication with a freezer evaporator (not shown) that removes thermal energy from the freezer compartment 12 to maintain the temperature therein at a temperature of 0° C. or less during operation of the refrigerator 10, preferably between 0° C. and −50° C., more preferably between 0° C. and −30° C. and even more preferably between 0° C. and −20° C.

The refrigerator 10 includes an interior liner 24 (FIG. 2) that defines the fresh food compartment 14. The fresh food compartment 14 is located in the upper portion of the refrigerator 10 in this example and serves to minimize spoiling of articles of food stored therein. The fresh food compartment 14 accomplishes this aim by maintaining the temperature in the fresh food compartment 14 at a cool temperature that is typically above 0° C., so as not to freeze the articles of food in the fresh food compartment 14. It is contemplated that the cool temperature preferably is between 0° C. and 10° C., more preferably between 0° C. and 5° C. and even more preferably between 0.25° C. and 4.5° C.

According to some embodiments, cool air from which thermal energy has been removed by the freezer evaporator can also be blown into the fresh food compartment 14 to maintain the temperature therein greater than 0° C. preferably between 0° C. and 10° C., more preferably between 0° C. and 5° C. and even more preferably between 0.25° C. and 4.5° C. For alternate embodiments, a separate fresh food evaporator can optionally be dedicated to separately maintaining the temperature within the fresh food compartment 14 independent of the freezer compartment 12.

According to an embodiment, the temperature in the fresh food compartment 14 can be maintained at a cool temperature within a close tolerance of a range between 0° C. and 4.5° C., including any subranges and any individual temperatures falling with that range. For example, other embodiments can optionally maintain the cool temperature within the fresh food compartment 14 within a reasonably close tolerance of a temperature between 0.25° C. and 4° C.

FIGS. 3-7 illustrate an embodiment of an ice maker 100 for use in are refrigerator 10. The ice maker 100 may be located anywhere in the refrigerator 10, for example the fresh food compartment or the freezer compartment (both discussed above).

In general, the inventive ice maker 100 may include: a longitudinal axis 102; and a rotatable, stretchable ice cube tray 104 having openings 106 for ice cubes (not shown) with an upper face 108 defining a plane offset 204 from the longitudinal axis 102, a fixed lateral end 110, and a rotatable lateral end 112, the upper face 108 being parallel to the longitudinal axis 102, the offset 204 being at least a depth of an ice cube 200. Ice cubes are released when a torsional force exerted on the rotatable lateral end twists the stretchable tray.

Tray 104 is a stretchable or flexible tray. The flexibility may be imparted by, for example, the material of constructions, for example, a rubber type material of an elastic plastic (elastomer) material or by flexible joints between the individual cube molds. The tray 104 may include a plurality of cube molds 111 having opening 106. Cube molds 111 may have any shape. In some embodiments the cube mold shape may be pyramidal and/or non-pyramidal.

Referring to FIG. 6, the upper surface 108 may be defined by an imaginary plane 108. A bottom surface 109 may be defined by an imaginary plane 109. Plane 108 is offset 202 from axis 102. Offset 202 is at least the depth 200 of a cube mold 111. Plane 109 is offset 204 from axis 102. Planes 108 and 109 are parallel and are parallel (or equidistantly offset over the tray length) from axis 102.

Referring to FIG. 5, the torsional twist of the tray 104 is illustrated. When a body is in torsion, there are tension and compression stresses acting on all the elements in the body which try to compensate the external load. The macro effect of these stresses can be observed in a twisted bar 300. There are tension and compression elements which can be identified and analyzed as shown in FIG. 5. The un-deformed line A-A′ is the same length as B-B′ as there is no force acting on the bar (not illustrated). As torque is applied (illustrated), A′ and B′ shift positions so that the lengths A-A′ and B-B′ are increased. Inversely, the combined lines B-A′ become shorter. This shows there is tension and compression along the bar chords, I.e., this torsion may be referred to as stretch (or twist). The tray 104 uses this “stretch” to deform the tray 104 and eject the ice cubes. The cube shapes 111 are above the rotation axis 102.

In operation, tray 104 is an untwisted position, see FIGS. 3-4 and 6, where ice cubes are formed. In ice cube harvest (ice has been formed), tray 104 is twisted, see FIGS. 5 and 7, where ice cubes are removed (ejected/dumped) from the tray 104. Twist is imparted to tray 104 by rotating one end 112 about axis 102, while the other end 110 is fixed (or not moved the same rotational distance as end 112). In some embodiments, the fixed end 110 may be rotated with end 112 to position to facilitate ice cube removal.

The present invention may be embodied in other forms without departing from the spirit and the essential attributes thereof, and, accordingly, reference should be made to the appended claims, rather than to the foregoing specification, as indicating the scope of the invention. 

I claim:
 1. A refrigerator comprises: an ice maker having a longitudinal axis; and a rotatable, stretchable ice cube tray having an upper face defining a plane offset from the longitudinal axis with openings for ice cubes, a fixed lateral end and a rotatable lateral end, the upper face being parallel to the longitudinal axis, the offset being at least a depth of an ice cube, wherein ice cubes in the tray are released when a torsional force exerted on the rotatable lateral end twists the stretchable tray.
 2. The refrigerator of claim 1 wherein the stretchable ice cube tray is flexible.
 3. The refrigerator of claim 2 wherein the flexible tray is made of rubber-type material or elastic plastic material.
 4. The refrigerator of claim 1 wherein the tray includes a plurality of ice cube molds.
 5. The refrigerator of claim 4 wherein the ice cube mold has a pyramidal shape.
 6. The refrigerator of claim 4 wherein the ice cube mold has a non-pyramidal shape.
 7. A refrigerator comprises: an ice maker having a longitudinal axis; and a rotatable, stretchable ice cube tray having an upper face defining a plane offset from the longitudinal axis with openings for ice cubes, a fixed lateral end and a rotatable lateral end, the upper face being parallel to the longitudinal axis, the offset being at least a depth of an ice cube, the tray is made of rubber-type material or elastic plastic material and includes a plurality of ice cube molds, and the ice cube mold have a pyramidal shape or a non-pyramidal shape, wherein ice cubes in the tray are released when a torsional force exerted on the rotatable lateral end twists and deforms the stretchable tray. 